Henry County residents learn about poverty and “Getting Ahead”

MT. PLEASANT - Students of the Fellowship Cup's Building Bridges Out of Poverty 'Getting Ahead” class walked over their final bridge and into their graduation on Monday evening.

The 'Getting Ahead” class aims to educate a diverse set of individuals from a community about the causes of poverty, the varying perspectives of each economic class and changes that can be made to help those facing poverty build connections and become self-sufficient.

The class is run by the Fellowship Cup, which provides facilitators and coordinators for the program.

This year's ceremony was held at the Faith Christian Outreach Center's Multipurpose Room and saw a total of 18 individuals graduate from the class, eight from Mt. Pleasant and ten from Wayland.

Ken Brown, director of the Fellowship Cup, announced the names of the graduates as they walked over a miniature bridge to receive their certificates.

Brown said the ceremony is one of the most rewarding parts of his job, especially because the program is aimed at teaching skills that will allow people to succeed beyond the class.

'It's always a journey. This is the third class. It's the most rewarding part of what we do and the mission of the Fellowship Cup because we see that we're investing in people. To see that it's the beginning of a new journey for a lot of these people and it's never going to end - that's the important thing. They're going to carry these principles with them for the rest of their lives,” he said.

Debra Savage, a Mt. Pleasant graduate who is planning to run for the Board of Supervisors, said she wanted to take the class because she felt it was important to understand exactly what poverty looks like in Henry County.

'I think that it's important to know what's really going on, to learn different aspects of poverty. I think sometimes we get set in our minds that it is just being out of money, when really there are so many factors,” she said.

Savage said one of the most exciting things about 'Getting Ahead” was understanding new perspectives and working through challenges as a group. She also encouraged people from all different backgrounds to consider taking the class.

'If you look at the individuals that were in the class, they all had something different going on in their lives that kind of caused them to be where they are. The exciting thing was everybody really wanted to get ahead and we all worked together as a team,” she said, 'I would really encourage anyone, no matter what socio-economic class they're in, to take it and sit down with people who are taking it for the reason that they do want to get ahead.”

Mindy McLeland, a school bus driver and cook for the Mt. Pleasant Community School District who also graduated as a member of the Mt. Pleasant class, said taking the class helped her look at her own finances more critically and identify ways she could improve.

'I wanted to find out where I was on the economic scale. I found out I'm doing pretty well but there's improvement. There's improvement for everyone in their financial status and how they pay their bills,” McLeland said.

For McLeland, one of the biggest lessons she learned from the program was how networking and connections are the key to helping someone who may be facing financial difficulties.

'The thing I take away is mainly just helping people out, how important it is for people to be connected to other people because sometimes they're lost and don't know where to turn. Recognizing people's needs and if you overhear someone talking, you can connect them to somebody who can help them out,” she said.

Wayland class member Aimee Vayan said the most important thing she learned from the class was understanding how to budget her money.

'Knowing that we only have so much for a certain amount of days. When I do our grocery shopping, I do it a month at a time so I buy for the whole month and we have to make what I get last the whole month,” she said.

Vayan got emotional as she spoke about why taking the class was important for her. Vayan, a single mother with a teenage son, is currently taking classes online to receive her bachelor's degree in health care administration

'I just felt like it's something I need to not only prove to myself but prove to my son that if mom can do it then he can do anything he wants to do. He's got learning disabilities so regardless of his disabilities, if I can do it with my disabilities, then there's not a doubt in my mind that he can do it too,” she said.

Vayan hopes she can use the skills she learned from 'Getting Ahead” to continue to move forward and set a good example for her child.

'This is really for my son,” she said.